Adventure-Ready: Strengthening Military Families Through Teen Camps

Looking for a way to empower military families while fostering resilience and connection? 

Join us as we explore the transformative Military Teen Adventure Camps, where service member parents and teens bond through adrenaline-pumping activities like ziplining, whitewater rafting, and rock climbing. 

Discover how these camps are creating lifelong memories and strengthening family ties.

In this episode of Practicing Connection, host Jessica Beckendorf and special co-host Kristen Jowers welcome Dr. Kerri Ashurst and Tyrone Atkinson from the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service to discuss Military Teen Adventure Camps. 

These camps provide military families with unique opportunities to strengthen parent-teen relationships through thrilling outdoor activities like whitewater rafting, mountain biking, and ziplining. 

Learn how these adventure-based programs build resilience, improve communication, and foster teamwork among military families.

Info on 2025 Summer Camps:

2025 Camp 1: Ocoee Whitewater Rafting and Outdoor Quest

Dates: July 11-14, 2025

Number of Participants: 80 per session (40 parent/teen teams)

Primary Activities (i.e. camping, hiking, kayaking, etc.): whitewater rafting, tubing, rock climbing, lake activities

2025 Camp 2: ACE Whitewater Rafting, Climbing, Rappelling and Outdoor Adventure

Dates: July 25-28, 2025

Number of Participants: 54 (27 parent/teen teams)

Primary Activities (i.e. camping, hiking, kayaking, etc.): Whitewater Paddling, mountain biking, zipline and canopy tour

Note - families from any state and branch are welcome to register, including active duty, reserve, guard, retiree families.

Practical links from this episode:

• Kentucky Military Teen Adventure Camps (MTAC)
• Kentucky MTAC Facebook group
• University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service
• Further MTA Camps nationwide

2025 Summer Camps

2025 Camp 1: Ocoee Whitewater Rafting and Outdoor Quest

Dates: July 11-14, 2025

Number of Participants: 80 (40 parent/teen teams)

2025 Camp 2: ACE Whitewater Rafting, Climbing, Rappelling and Outdoor Adventure

Dates: July 25-28, 2025

Number of Participants: 54 (27 parent/teen teams)

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Families from any state and branch are welcome to register.

Transcript

JESSICA BECKENDORF: [00:00:00] Hello, welcome to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Jessica Beckendorf, and I'm so excited today to be welcoming our special guests and a guest co-host Kristin Jowers, whose voice you might recognize from our other wonderful collaboration on grief and loss, and in our annual reflection episode, just this past December. Welcome back to Practicing Connection, Kristin. Would you mind introducing yourself a little bit more?

KRISTEN JOWERS: Thanks Jessica for having me back on the pod. I am Kristin Jowers and I'm an extension specialist at the University of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension. I joined the OneOp team, in the role of program coordinator, in 2023. Although I have been tuning into the Military Families Learning Network webinars since 2016. And I'm a longtime listener of this podcast, so it is a joy to be co-hosting with you [00:01:00] today, Jessica, and I'm really excited because I have two colleagues from the University of Kentucky joining us as well.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, there are three. I found out that you are the Kentucky Wildcats. There are three of you in the house. I am the only Badger. But I feel like Badgers and Wildcats, that would be a pretty good matchup, don't you think? Like, badgers are pretty vicious. And so are Wildcats. Alright, so, Dr. Kerri Ashurst is a Senior Extension Specialist for Family and Relationship Development. She serves as director for a variety of grants focusing on outreach and support to military families, and for Kentucky's children, Youth and Families at Risk joint grant with Kentucky State University, focusing on life skills for Kentucky youth. Kerri also serves as a federal coach for USDA, for the Children, Youth and Families at Risk Professional Development and Technical Assistance Center. 

She has a background in marriage and family therapy, and a PhD in family [00:02:00] science. She began her work with military families in 2008, so she's been doing this a little while. Dr. Ashurst’s focus is building statewide and national capacity for reaching underserved children, youth, families, and communities. She has worked in family and consumer science's extension at the University of Kentucky since 1999, and enjoys developing programs for the families throughout the lifespan and supporting service providers all over the country who provide family focused programs.

KRISTEN JOWERS: Also joining us today is Tyrone Atkinson, Extension Specialist for Family and Consumer Sciences Extension. He holds a Master of Science in Community and Leadership Development and a Bachelor of Science degree in Family and Consumer Sciences from the University of Kentucky. He began his work with military families in 2009.

His main role is to enhance family life and wellbeing [00:03:00] through high adventure camps that generate support networks for military families and lifelong bonding experiences. His focus is helping families create and strengthen bonds that exist within the family structure, and equipping them with the skills to nurture and expand those bonds. Being a part of the University of Kentucky Extension within Family and Consumer Sciences since 2007, Tyrone enjoys community outreach and being able to facilitate face-to-face programming with various audiences that build strong families. Hi Kerri. Hi Tyrone. It seems like just yesterday we were together in Louisville at the Kentucky State Extension Conference. Thank you both so much for joining us on Practicing Connection.

KERRI ASHURST: Thank you. We appreciate you having us along with you.

TYRONE ATKINSON: Thanks for having us, it's great to be with you and see you again.

KRISTEN JOWERS: Yes, we're so excited [00:04:00] to chat with you both today, more about the Military Teen Adventure Camps. And so to begin, we'd love to hear what inspired the creation of Military Teen Adventure Camps and how they have evolved since their inception.

KERRI ASHURST: I was a camper for life, as a child, my dad actually worked in 4-H and so from a very young age, I started going to 4-H Camp and loved it and spent a lot of time outdoors with my dad as a kiddo. And, it was just always where I found a lot of peace, a lot of joy, and definitely lots of great connection and fun memories with my family and with my father, specifically.

And so when I first started working with military family programming many years ago, I was very blessed to receive some funding that focused on military camps for the family. And when we first started, we actually had, gosh, I think the youngest we ever had at one of our camps was three weeks old, and the oldest we had was 74 years old. And we had everything in [00:05:00] between. 

But one of the things we kept hearing over and over the first couple of years of doing those military family camps is how much the parents wanted time with their teenagers. And that they just didn't have much of that, that they had missed a lot of their lives from deployments and other things, and that they really wanted that ability to be able to have some one-on-one time with their teenage children.

And so that's kind of where this was born. The idea for it came out of some of those pieces we are getting from families that came to different programs we are doing. And then also a lot of military parents telling us, you know, “We've moved a lot, we're in new places. Sometimes it's a little scary and overwhelming to send our kids off to a camp alone, or at least at first.”

And that we even saw this as a possible way to be able to help build some connections too with things like having them start into some of our programs and then be able to go on into a 4-H camp or different things as well. 

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Wow. I really aspire to be a 74-year-old kid! [00:06:00] So what are the primary goals of the military team and adventure camps, and how do adventure activities facilitate these objectives?

TYRONE ATKINSON: That's good. We, first of all, M-TAC, I'll say M-TAC just that's our shortened abbreviation for Military Teen Adventure Camp. So, M-TAC, we have a host of things that we try to provide for families and our goals in reaching the teens and the parent service members or guardians together. One of those is increasing informal support networks.

Our systems for military families to provide safety and a welcoming environment. We want them to have healthy introductions to outdoor programming. We do come across a lot of families with youth who have never been to camp before. And unlike Kerri’s experience where she grew up going to camps, I was a kid who did not go to camps.

I grew up in a very urban city in Kentucky, and I had very bad experiences camping early in my childhood. So it kind of turned me off. And I was one of those people that wanted to be a mama and [00:07:00] daddy's boy, so I didn't want to leave them for a week at a time. They weren't gonna get rid of me.

So one of the things we do is focus on helping to have positive, initial interactions with outdoor programming for those who have never been outside or never have done any nature programming, and especially staying overnight. We also seek to increase youth awareness, the importance of working with others and teamwork, communication and cause and effect relationships between their actions, and their consequences to increase responsible citizenship. So we do hint and hit at a lot of the 4-H components, which are centered in just building young people up, helping them to become leaders in their communities, helping them to take ownership of their futures and of their own leadership.

And just building that resiliency. And just learning how to adapt to change. Kerri alluded to earlier, our camp started with a lot of families experiencing deployments that had never operated as a military family. So a lot of guard and reserve [00:08:00] families that did not have this ongoing military lifestyle.

So that is, you know, as deployments ramped up over 10 - 15 years ago, families were being suddenly activated or having to endure this life that they really hadn't been used to. So teaching a lot of young people, and we really do believe military youth get it well, as they start to learn to adapt to all kinds of changes.

So we do that at camp in helping them to adapt, and learn resiliency. So those are some of the things.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: You know, exposing people to positive experiences in nature really is a great way to teach adaptation. I mean, I remember, you know, I was a military kid, I grew up in large cities and I remember constantly so many times my dad saying to me, “Get your nose outta that book and go play outside.”

But I was like, “But there are ticks outside. Like there are, there are snakes outside!” I did learn to be very adaptable, and I think a lot of military kids end up being adaptable through some of their other [00:09:00] experiences. But I think what you're describing is just a really well-rounded way of teaching things like adaptability. 

KERRI ASHURST: Yes. And you know what, we use the line challenge by choice. So we're doing lots of fun things outdoors and introducing people to new things that might be a bit out of their comfort zone. And we're encouraging them to try something new that is a little bit scary or new, but it's all challenged by choice as well.

And so I think that's a really great part of a lot of this is, people can say, you know, “Here's my limit. But we've also had some really cool experiences.” I always bring up zip line when it comes to this kind of thing. We've had some kids who have gotten up there to do a zip line, and it's, you know, it's what they wanna do more than anything else at the whole camp.

But then they get there and they see it and they feel overwhelmed. It's very scary. But then once they finally release and let go, and they do it, they say it's the greatest thing they've ever done. So a lot of that challenge by choice with experiential education can be incredible, to push you out [00:10:00] of your comfort zone a little bit in a lot of good ways.

KRISTEN JOWERS: Yes, Kerri, I love hearing about their experience coming up upon a big challenge and then sometimes making the choice for themselves that they don't wanna do it, and then other times kind of pushing through and still experiencing something that they maybe had some fear.

I'm curious what other activities and what other adventure happens at these camps. Are there other kinds of adventures happening?

TYRONE ATKINSON: We do a whole host of fun things that we just love to do. And I have a lot of personal favorites. Especially some of the programs that we've done that Kerri already said, zip lining, which is a very big activity. We have mountain biking, we've done mountain biking, we've done rock climbing.

Even, we've done winter camps in the past where we've had skiing and snow tubing camps. We've done whitewater rafting, which is one of my favorites. Canoeing, whitewater canoeing and regular canoeing, which are two different things that I didn't know because [00:11:00] of course not going to camp.

I learned that very, very, shortly after I got involved with M-TAC, that whitewater canoeing and regular canoeing are two different activities. But we do a lot of just team building. And it depends on the place where we're actually hosting camp, the layout, the demographic of where that camp may be.

We kind of rely on the outdoor nature of what we're doing there. We do a lot of hiking. We do a lot of, you know, just finding our space in nature and just game times, where we're learning to do small group games, and build relationships. But we're also doing the fun things that you would do at a camp when you're camping with your family.

We do ultimate Frisbee. We grill out and we have hot dogs together, and we just spend time as a family, and really the most enjoyable part of it, and even in our data from youth and parents alike, is spending time together no matter what the activity is. Just being together and bonding.

That is the most fun thing that we get to do at every camp.

KRISTEN JOWERS: It does sound like a lot of fun. [00:12:00] Tyrone, are the camps only in Kentucky or are they happening in other states as well?

KERRI ASHURST: We have done camps in six states through the years using this parent teen model. So we've been in several different places. And one great thing about that, Kristen, is that we've been able to use it as a tool while the families are having fun, to also be able to teach a little bit about where we are. So if we're in a national forest area or if we're at a retreat center area, on a specific lake or in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky, for example, we can use that as a little bit of an educational piece at the same time. The Red River Gorge and the amazing geology there, you know, and be able to work that into some of the fun things that they're doing as they're out there canoeing and doing lake activities and various things. 

JESSICA BECKENDORF: From what you're describing, I can imagine that not only is being outdoors and doing these adventures a lot of fun, but there's lots of other benefits. And I think, Tyrone, you started to talk a little bit about some of those benefits, but could you maybe share more about the benefits that are [00:13:00] beyond having fun and spending time together?

KERRI ASHURST: Sure. Certainly one of those things is just that parent-child relationship, that when you look at the adolescent development literature, it's just a really pivotal time with changes that are happening with youth and with negotiation that need to happen with our parenting. I have one myself at home. I have a teenager at home at the moment.

And, you know, being able to make some of those changes and shift. Some of it takes time. Some of it takes the ability to be able to sit down and spend some time together. And I think one thing that really happens at our camps very naturally is when you get there, you're in a place that may be in the middle of nowhere and phones don't necessarily work or don't work well.

So it forces a lot of us to unplug, and just be more present. And it's really kind of amazing those of us who have staffed these camps through the years to get to watch what can unfold in just four days. With me being trained as a therapist, I was often trained in the idea that things kind of take time.

But [00:14:00] I've realized through these camps that four days can really be magical. And watching the youth and their parents put these phones down and doing things together, communicating, trying to problem solve together and meet other youth and other parents that are in similar experiences with them, can really, really open up a lot of doors for renegotiating that parenting relationship.

And then along with that, there's a lot of mental health pieces too that seem to come along with it. First of all, just simply being outdoors. I don't know about any of you, but I know I just kind of feel a little bit different. I feel a little bit more engaged in the present when I'm outside and I am noticing things. Maybe it's heightened senses, I don't know. But I'm noticing things that I might not otherwise notice, and I don't feel like I have on blinders as much with a lot of the things I'm doing in my everyday life. And so there's some mental health pieces involved in that. And we've been able to actually, now that we've been doing this a lot of years, been able [00:15:00] to look at some things that even have to do with depression and anxiety, and self-efficacy. 

And just, being able to talk with friends, understand people, trust, some of those kinds of things that we've been able to really sit down and talk. Sometimes it's non-formal evaluations. Sometimes it's been more formal surveys and things, but being able to look at what the youths, they get out of this, and then likewise the adults.

And even looking at six months past the camps and what the parents have said to us, they feel like it's done to help change some of their relationship. 

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Wow, that's, that sounds really powerful. I can imagine that it's coming from not just spending time together, it's coming from, you know, you described earlier the kids who really wanted to do zip lining, they were so excited about it, and then they got overwhelmed and scared, right? So facing a bit of a fear and like getting out of the norm and, and doing things like that. It's like this whole holistic thing you've got going on.

KRISTEN JOWERS: I love hearing too, [00:16:00] Kerri, how you talk about that parent-teen relationship after camp. Are you talking to them about their experience and getting feedback from both the parent and the teen? Or is it one family survey? Or how does that kind of look, and what are they saying?

KERRI ASHURST: We've done it both ways through the years, but it's predominantly been in the form of just unsolicited testimonials. Tyrone gets a lot of emails from people and we send messages out. We actually create list-serves for the youth to be able to stay in contact with one another. And then we have a lot of things that come from the parents along the way, that are not always the parent that attended.

Sometimes it's the parent that didn't come, or a guardian that didn't come, that writes us and says, “You guys, this has changed the relationship,” or, “This has changed something in my adolescent.” We even just got one the other day from a youth who had participated in a camp last summer, that was talking about how her daughter is now going into AmeriCorps because of some of what she [00:17:00] learned at the camp last year and that she wants to be able to work with military youth herself down the road.

So really amazing, unsolicited testimonials, I think is really the primary route where we're picking a lot of that information up afterward.

TYRONE ATKINSON: I would also add to that too. Let's be honest, right. Teens are teens, whether they're military, teens or not. We're not hearing from them unless we have to hear from them. Right Kristen? So, uh, that's just - and of course I'm just being funny, but that's the thing. We're working with a demographic that they'll communicate when they have to.

But the way we find out what they really loved about it is when we get the next year, when we have camp, and they wanna sign up to be youth volunteers or young adult volunteers, and “I wanna become on staff.” And that's a lot of feedback that we have. The parents will always email us and say, “We're excited.” 'Cause if they have multiple kids, of course they can come back in the next year. 

But what we've learned is as some of the teens get older, or they age out, some of them want to come back and they wanna work, they [00:18:00] wanna be a volunteer or they want to try to get on staff. And that's how we know that we've done something right.

Or we hear multiple stories of, you know, they signed up to be in the military. This encouraged them. They went on to go to other camps, other M-TACS, we're not the only - and of course we can talk about that later, but we're not the only state that does M-TACS.

So, there's just a host of things that we call rewards, as Kerri mentioned, that may not be on paper, but we see that from feedback that their parents and families are always wanting to be engaged and they continue to tell other people about it.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Well, speaking of being rewarding, let's dig into that a little bit. Are there any memorable stories or experiences from the camps that have been inspiring to you? I see a big smile on both of your faces right now!

KERRI ASHURST: There are probably too many that we could ever share in this time we have together. But, one that has always stuck with me is, we had a male on the younger side of adolescents that was with us one time in a camp who wanted a zip line. [00:19:00] Again, I come back to that story so often. He wanted to do this more than anything in the world.

But at the particular camp we were at that time, you had to climb a rock wall first. Some zip lines are not set up that way. Some it's just a ladder, or some you're starting from a certain spot or what have you. And it's pretty easy to do the zip line, right. But in this particular facility we were at, you had to climb this rock wall successfully first. And rock walls, if you've ever done one before, are not real easy. Some of these kids, though, make them look like they're a breeze. But, he tried the first day. A lot of our camps, we break people up into smaller subgroups that are, you know, doing different activities at the same time. He tried that first day and couldn't make it up the rock wall, and so he asked us his staff if he could go back and repeat that instead of doing a different activity that his subgroup was assigned to.

He tried it a second time and he couldn't get up the rock wall, and he was getting very frustrated, because he just wanted to hit that zip line so [00:20:00] badly and do it one time in his life. And finally after just feeling like he wasn't gonna be able to do it and us encouraging him and everything, he got on there a third time on the last day of the camp, I believe it was, the last morning, and a whole group of people who had been parts of subgroups from other things came over and joined him and we all cheered him on and he made it up that rock wall and he got to zipline.

So it was great. Yeah. 

KRISTEN JOWERS: Yay. 

KERRI ASHURST: Stories like that, they're just, yeah, they will get you and they will pull you in and they make all the hard work and planning for these camps worth every minute of it.

KRISTEN JOWERS: Third time's a charm. That's awesome. I'm glad that he made it up the rock wall and kind of conquered, slayed the dragon, if you will. Tyrone, did you have a story that you wanted to share also?

TYRONE ATKINSON: There are so many; Kerri’s really great at recalling exactly what happened. Mine would be jumbled and probably pieced together from two or multiple stories. But [00:21:00] I will share a common thought that I have every year that I go back. What is so interesting, and, and Kerri alluded to this earlier, we do believe that there is Camp Magic, and I see it every summer, every time that we have camps, and it happens in the form of you have families coming from all over. And we may have not gotten too much into this, we know we do have camps at multiple places, but all of our families aren't coming from Kentucky. We have families come from all over the country and not all these families know each other.

So to have a group of 50 to 65 people, teens and parents, that have never met, come together in this, Kerri said, in four days. By the first night we usually do team building.

We'll have dinner. We check in on the first night, and we just kind of take it easy. We don't do any high, volume activities, but we'll just do some team building with them, old school, like I said: group games, and just getting back to just communicating and [00:22:00] talking. But by the end of that first night, every camp, it never fails.

Those families are already bonding with other families. Those teens, they've already found some community and it's just a beautiful sight to see. It's really, really magical in the sense of at this point, it's not even that we're trying or it's not forced, and it's just amazing to see that by the end of those three or four days, that those families have created a network and they have bonded in a way that some of those memories can lead to lifetime experiences and friendships and bonds, and that is what happened. We believe that magic is what keeps them coming back, and that is why families end up communicating. And we don't have to email every family. Most of them are already emailing us, you know, later that year, and we can't even apply for the grant until the end of the year.

But some of them already want to know, as soon as it's over, “Hey, what are we doing next year?” And it's just amazing to see how families come together.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Do they keep in touch, that you know of? Do the families sometimes keep in [00:23:00] touch and become friends long term?

TYRONE ATKINSON: Absolutely. 

KERRI ASHURST: Yes. And we've had some really cool stories with that. We had two girls that met at a camp one time who ended up, the next several years in a row, one family flew a girl to the other family's house in another state for Christmas, so they could spend Christmas break together. Yeah, so we've had some really amazing stories.

We've had a lot of families follow up with us through the years about their youth going on into degrees for college or into the military or something to be able to do some work that focuses on paying it forward in many ways and being able to give of themselves in service to other military families.

KRISTEN JOWERS: I love how you said it, Tyrone, “Camp Magic.” It sounds like the magic, it's there for the parents. It's there for the teens. Like collectively, it's there for parents, it's there for spouses at home or guardians at home that hear about and experience the transformation months and years following [00:24:00] camp. But it also sounds like it's transformational for you, like for you as a Camp counselor as the lead, and getting to go to camp, Tyrone through the military teen adventure camp. So it sounds like extremely rewarding work.

TYRONE ATKINSON: Kristen, that is amazing. And you kind of are reading my thoughts. Transformational is a word that I would say has been a big part of my career, which I know we may talk about a little later, which is why I believe extension is so important. The work that we do in extension. I believe we are here to be, change agents and transformation agents.

If I could use that, for families, the work that we've been able to do through these military grants, and through M-TAC, it's so rewarding and it has a lot of therapeutic aspects to what we do. I learned years ago that, it's kind of hard to put it into words, but the more you serve clientele and the [00:25:00] more you you do for others, you realize that not only is it you giving a service to other people, but sometimes those people are serving you.

And I've realized somewhere along the way that all the things that I think I give and all of my passion and all of my heart that I want to give out, and I love working with youth and families, but I also realized that there's also needs there that have been met for me.

Like I wasn't, like I said in the beginning, I wasn't a very outdoor person, and Kerri knows this, 'cause we've worked together the majority of my whole career. And it is just amazing to see the transformation that I went from wanting to stay in a cabin with no air, rather than to stay in a tent and be around bugs and snakes and spiders.

And now if I don't go outside and go camp in a tent at some point in any given year, then I feel like my life is dull. You know? And it's just crazy how much that's changed. But again, that is the magic too, that it changes you. More than you [00:26:00] think. As well as you changing. And I think that's what passion and having a heart to serve people does.

Eventually you realize that you are a beneficiary of the serving that you're giving.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Wow. I feel like we should just end the episode on that line! So, extension, you mentioned extension as being a change maker, and I kind of wanna move us a little bit into talking about extension kind of as a whole, because all of us on this call are extension educators, extension employees. 

And one part of our purpose with this podcast is to highlight examples of the military Family Readiness System in action. A program like the Military Teen Adventure Camps. That is the military family readiness system in action, right? It is a program that supports military families, and you all are professionals that are part of this network of networks, that is what the military Family Readiness system is.

It's a network of networks, and so a big part of what we try to do in the podcast is highlight [00:27:00] examples, but also talk a little bit about the military family readiness system and what it means to be a professional that's connected within that system. And extension in general is an organization. There are many extensions across the US, we are all kind of connected as part of this system. There are some of them who do direct programming like you guys do, and there are some who don't, or maybe don't do as much of it. And so my question is, you know, from your perspective, what's the value of extension in doing outreach and programming to support military families? 

KERRI ASHURST: You know, when a lot of the programming first began to occur through extension, with military partnerships through DOD and USDA and other entities as well, a lot of it was 4-H focused. It was focused on youth and 4-H clubs and, bringing 4-H Club programming to bases and that kind of thing.

Really looking at Extension as a great conduit, if you will, for being able to do youth development programming. And that's sort of where it began. But then through [00:28:00] the years it's really expanded and moved into all areas. And of course, Tyrone and I are in Family Consumer Sciences here at the University of Kentucky.

And, looking at it from a really holistic perspective and a lifespan perspective, even with the work that extension does and can offer to any audience, including the military and being a part of the family readiness system with everything from nutrition programs, to family finance, to parenting, to outdoor recreational programs like M-TAC and many, many other things as well along the way.

And so, you know, we work within extension with the most rural to the most urban, and everything in between there too. And I think that's a big part of why extension can be such a fantastic resource for families at any stage in the lifespan.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, and I'll just throw in there a little bit just because I come from the community development side of extension. I'm even thinking there are ways to support military families through our [00:29:00] entrepreneurship programming and through looking at solving for certain issues in a community, like housing, whatever the community issues are, right? Military families are one of the groups of people that may have a stake in that particular issue. I see this all the time. I also see though a lot of extension educators being like, “Well, I don't serve military families. I just have my programming and I put my programming out there on all my different channels, and people come to the programming. I do my evaluation on the programming, and I don't have any military families.” Well, we don't ask, we don't ask in our evaluations. I think a lot of us don't ask about that status.

KERRI ASHURST: That's a very good point. When we first started doing, what I'm gonna call more intentional work with military, many years ago, you know, we are in a state where we actually have 120 counties in Kentucky, and we have 120 extension offices. And a lot of people don't know that about our state. It's pretty incredible.

But, because we had people doing programming in every county, they were reaching military and didn't even necessarily [00:30:00] know it through some of the different things that they were doing.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yes.

KERRI ASHURST: Then when we really started looking at this from a more intentional way, we realized, yeah, we already have people who are involved, but let's try to help them understand what extension is, to be able to get them even more involved and, really be able to do some targeted programming.

Then that focuses on working with our armories and our bases and various different things. 

TYRONE ATKINSON: I know that one of the things that we did early on, as Kerri said, especially with military, OneSource became really big. Kerri and I connected with them and they used to have demographic data that would showcase how many families our military families were in that specific county. They did breakdowns of military service members, and what we did with the extension agents is that we went in communities and helped them to see the numbers of how many military personnel or family members and youth would be in their counties, just to give them an idea.

And I think sometimes having that information is even eye-opening, 'cause it's like, you know, [00:31:00] you probably have served some of these families, you just don't know it. And I think, going back to the question is, one of the benefits of having extension is that we are that branch, we are that arm to the community from the university.

And we have so many programs and resources at times that families just never know about. So I would definitely be remiss if I didn't highlight the 4-H military partnerships. Kerri and I have both been a part of that agency at times and just the work that they're doing all over.

One of the things that is very important is military families do move from time to time, especially if they're on active duty, so they're not always staying in the same community. So the importance of having extension across the board and having some fluidity to our programming is, “What if I enjoyed something really well when I was in one community, but then I had to move across the country. If I can connect to another extension, maybe they're not doing the same programming, but maybe it's the same heart and essence, if I [00:32:00] can connect to a 4-H club, or if I can connect to A-A-F-C-S program or an agriculture program, and if I can still stay involved in my community,” I think Extension has a responsibility to still serve families no matter where they go.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Thank you so much. That is the conversation that I would like to have more often with extension educators. 

So, we love to end each of our episodes with, asking our guests to share a personal practice that helps with your own mental health, wellbeing, readiness, and resilience.

So, did you guys have something to share with us?

KRISTEN JOWERS: I’ll go first, Jessica. Kerri was talking about this earlier about like, something about being outdoors just really makes you feel like you're more present. I feel like I appreciate the sunrises more, the sunsets more, I feel like I breathe in deeper in the outdoors. But, I think the key to fully enjoying any adventure or activity for me is prioritizing rest and [00:33:00] giving myself permission to do nothing. I really see rest as kind of the prerequisite to hard work, and not necessarily like the reward to hard work. And I find that when I prioritize rest, I'm really setting myself up for sustainable effort, and adventure.

My husband and I, we love to make travel plans and going to national parks. Folks listening on the podcast can't see that I have all these national park posters behind me in my video. But, we know that to fully enjoy the experience and the adventure that we have to have downtime and rest as well.

KERRI ASHURST: I'll jump in with that, with saying that I am an experience person. I don't do well when I'm in the same place for too terribly long. And I like to get out and I like to do. And so when I first started developing this idea many, many years ago, in my head of bringing a parent and a teenager together from a military family to a camp, a lot of it came [00:34:00] out of, like I said, my own joys from childhood being outdoors and experiencing. And I was a little bit terrified, if I'm being honest. I thought, “Oh my gosh, what if we do this and we get the funding for this, and then, you know, two people sign up or nobody signs up!”

I was really scared those first couple of years. But what I came to realize very quickly is how many people were looking for those experiences too, and being able to do those things and create those memories with their children. It ended up becoming very simple within a couple of years of us moving from nobody knowing what we were doing to word of mouth, traveling very fast, and Tyrone and I getting phone calls or emails from people who were in another country, stationed somewhere in another country or maybe out on a carrier, somewhere out in the ocean or something, asking us when our camp registrations were going to begin. And it was the coolest thing in the whole world. 

It was so rewarding for me to get to see something that started truly in many ways as an idea from some of the things we were hearing from families become [00:35:00] real and become powerful, and become very meaningful to the families that we're attending. And now, in more recent years, I know you're gonna have some information about our upcoming registration, we'll be starting that soon. In more recent years, we've actually filled up camps and had pretty long wait lists, so it's been incredible to get to watch all of that growth through the years for me.

TYRONE ATKINSON: I would say two things for me. Since we're talking about being outdoors, and camping, I'll use things that are therapeutic for me. At camp, one of the things is just realizing that I try to help a lot of youth understand, and then people who, because I've come from such a traumatic background of not loving outdoors, to loving outdoors. It's kinda like you go in a room, I try to help people to think, like, when you go in a room, it's dark, but when you flip on the flashlight or you click on the light switch, the light immediately comes on right? 

And to embrace that light. It's one thing to go from being an inside person and never wanting to [00:36:00] come outside, and then when you fully get to a place where you're in the open country the only noise is, animals or insects. And that is the noise of the evening. It's, in myself, teaching myself to fully embrace that moment and flip the light switch.

Like, “Hey, I'm outdoors now. This is where I am. So I gotta be comfortable with everything that's gonna happen out here because I'm no longer inside.” So that's one of the things. And I know, but then the other part is practicing reflecting with gratitude.

My favorite place to be at camp, even though I said whitewater raft, and I love to be in the water 'cause I'm a water person, but the campfire is my safe space. Anytime that there's a fire, I can just sit down and stare into the fire for hours. And that is a place where I feel safe. That's a place where I just feel like I can collect my thoughts and I just reflect with gratitude.

That's what I long for. So anytime that I can get out and go, be around a fire and just gaze, have an ultimate [00:37:00] smore too, those are with Reese's - if you've never had an ultimate s'more. So that's what we do at camp. If you can tolerate peanut butter, of course, but just to be around a fire. That's my safe space.

KRISTEN JOWERS: I love that Tyrone. I actually just tried a s'more with a Reese Cup this past year and it's awesome. I don't know about the ultimate s'more, is that Hershey's Chocolate? 

TYRONE ATKINSON: No, it's just with the Reese. So you’ve already done it!

KRISTEN JOWERS: It’s the Camp Magic! Yes.

TYRONE ATKINSON: We gotta get you there so you can experience it, Kristen.

KRISTEN JOWERS: That sounds so good. And thank you so much, Kerri and Tyrone, for joining us today. There are a couple of websites that we will link in our show notes so that you can learn more about the camps. There is also a Facebook profile that you can follow for more information. The Facebook profile is Kentucky Military Teen Adventure Camps.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: That's it for this episode. Thanks so much for joining us, and a special thanks to our guests, Dr. Kerri [00:38:00] Ashurst and Tyrone Atkinson, and guest co-host Kristen Jowers. If you enjoyed this episode, click the share button in your podcast app to share it with a friend. We'd also love to hear what you've been thinking about and what's inspiring you. You can share that with us by clicking the “Send us a text message” at the top of the description of this episode. If you're listening on a computer, you can email us at practicing connection@oneop.org. We can't wait to hear from you.

- break -

KRISTEN JOWERS: In today's episode, we had a great conversation with Kerri Ashurst and Tyrone Atkinson about military teen adventure camps. These camps offer incredible opportunities for military youth to connect, grow, and experience the great outdoors. We wanted to take a moment to share a bit more about them. So if you're part of a military family or you know, someone who is, here are the details you'll wanna pass along:

Attention military families. Are you ready for an unforgettable adventure [00:39:00] this summer? The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service is offering two incredible Military Teen Adventure Camps in 2025, completely free of charge!

The first camp, Ocoee Whitewater Rafting and Outdoor Quest, will take place from July 11-14, 2025, and will accommodate 80 participants, divided into 40 parent/teen teams. This camp will feature exciting activities such as whitewater rafting, tubing, rock climbing, and lake activities.

The second camp, ACE Whitewater Rafting, Climbing, Rappelling and Outdoor Adventure, is scheduled for July 25-28, 2025, with 54 spots available for 27 parent/teen teams. This camp will offer thrilling experiences including whitewater paddling, mountain biking, ziplining, and canopy tours.

These four-day camps are open to military families from all states and branches, including active duty, reserve, guard, and retirees. Parents or guardians can join their teens (ages 13-19) for thrilling outdoor experiences, team-building activities, and quality bonding time.

Since 2012, these camps have brought together families from multiple states and countries, offering exciting challenges and unforgettable memories. Don't miss this opportunity to strengthen your family bonds while conquering rapids, scaling cliffs, and soaring through treetops!

Mark your calendars: Registration opens April 17, 2025. Visit the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service website for more information and to secure your spot in these high [00:41:00] adrenaline adventures! 

We'd like to thank our announcer Kaylin, Gobel Mathis, Maggie Lucas, and Joyce Vaughn for their help with marketing and Nathan Grim, who composed and performed all the music you hear on the podcast. We hope you'll listen again soon. Until then, keep practicing.

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, U. S. Department of Defense, under award number 2023-48770-41333.